A biography of the life and scientific work of John Wesley Powell, published as part of Chapter VIII, National Academy of Sciences Biographical Memoirs. The author, William Morris Davis, was a contemporary of Powell and in the circle of luminaries of the time in the paleontological, geological and geographical sciences. Powell served in the Civil War, and later in government. He not only was the second Director of the U.S. Geological Survey, but headed the Bureau of Ethnology for the Smithsonian Institute (future field of anthropology) and was a strong proponent of Indian rights and languages in government. He was a relative of the Wesleys, founders of the Wesleyan religion. ( Melanie Schleeter McCalmont)

IMPORTANT - soloist, please note: in order to limit the amount of languishing projects (and hence the amount of files on our hard-pressed server), we ask that you post an update at least once a month in your project thread, even if you haven't managed to record anything. If we don't hear from you for three months, your project may be opened up to a group project if a Book Coordinator is found. Files you have completed will be used in this project. If you haven't recorded anything yet, your project will be removed from the forum (contact any admin to see if it can be re-instated).

Please don't download or listen to files belonging to projects in process (unless you are the BC or PL). Our servers are not set up to handle the greater volume of traffic. Please wait until the project has been completed. Thanks!

Magic Window:

The reader will record the following at the beginning and end of each file:
No more than 0.5 to 1 second of silence at the beginning of the recording!START of recording (Intro):

"Chapter [number] of BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIR OF JOHN WESLEY POWELL 1834-1902. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information, or to volunteer, please visit: librivox DOT org"

Thanks! I will start this project when Mountaineering is done, so it may sit idle until then, probably September. I'll need your advice on chapterizing, since some are very short and some very long...I'll consult you when time comes to start it. There's so many great government-related publications from this era.

Reviewing the text, this is one long "essay" with unnumbered sections. I'm calling them "chapters" but am wondering if I should technically state on the recording "Chapter 4" when there is no actual number to be seen? Or is the statement of "chapter" just a mnemonic for sections on the voice recording?

You raise a good point. When I have soloed similar projects, I have introduced the recordings as "section" with a number. Or you can start them with "part". Whatever makes sense to you, as long as you also say a number so the listeners know they are going in order.

I've posted sections 1, 2, and 3 of the solo recording. Since there are no chapter numbers but section titles, I've called it 'section' so that the numbering matches the recording id. Let me know if this sounds ok as a process?

That's just what I do on my own projects. I use either chapter or section, depending on what makes sense given the book's organization and anytime the chapter numbers are out of whack with the section numbers (like when I need to split chapters into multiple sections), then I use sections as well.

My goal was to get back to this reading and finish it over the holidays. I was doing a lot of work traveling until December 10. But I came down with a chest virus going around here and my voice is shot, can't even breathe in without coughing. But I'm still committed to the project and should feel better soon, hopefully!